The present invention relates to a steerable motor
more particularly, to a steerable axle with a torsion bar stabilizer held at the superstructure side and having offset pieces secured to the lower end of a connecting arm which has an upper end articulated in the wheel steering axis.
A front axle is shown in German Patent No. 3,803,802. Connecting arms connecting the stabilizer-side joints of a torsion-bar stabilizer and wheel carrier are formed by swivel joints, and their joints on the wheel-carrier side are configured as ball-and-socket joints. This arrangement ensured that forces transmitted by the torsion bar of the torsion-bar stabilizer to the wheel carriers to reduce the side tilt of the vehicle superstructure during cornering have no influence on the steering.
It is an underlying object of the invention to provide a front axle configuration having a stabilizer arrangement which fulfills the additional purpose of improving the returnability of the steering.
This object has been achieved according to the present invention by swivelling the connecting arm about the steering axis via the wheel carrier and in the same direction as the wheel carrier, counter to a flexible restoring support situated in the connection of the torsion bar stabilizer to the connecting arm. The torsion-bar stabilizer thus contributes to the improvement of the returnability of the steering in that, during steering movements of the wheel carriers, a restoring torque proportional to the steering angle is produced via the connecting arms of the torsion-bar stabilizer by the flexible and restoring supports provided in the connections of the torsion-bar stabilizer to the connecting arms articulated on the wheel carriers. This restoring torque considerably improves the returnability of the steering, particularly in the case of maximum steering lock.
The movement of the connecting arm in the same direction as the wheel carrier can be accomplished by a swivel joint connecting these two parts to each other.
A presently preferred embodiment of the invention provides a construction in which the restoring torque is produced within the stabilizer-side joint of the connecting arm. An axially loadable rubber torsion bearing is particularly suitable for this purpose.
In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, it is proposed that the upper joint connecting the connecting arm to the wheel carrier also be provided in the form of an axially loadable rubber torsion bearing. This offers the special advantage that, during steering movements, the connecting arm is not taken along by the wheel carrier in a positive fashion. The connecting arm is also taken along over part of the steering angle, as a function of the torsional rigidity of the rubber torsion bearing.
Insofar as the two rubber torsion bearings are of identical configuration and corresponding dimensions in this arrangement, the resulting swivel angle for the connecting arm is approximately half as great as the steering angle. As a result, the problems with freedom of motion are reduced, especially when, in accordance with another advantageous embodiment of the invention, the connecting arm is of U-, arc- or crescent-shaped design. This makes it possible to have the arm reach laterally around the wheel carrier and thereby move it a relatively long way into the wheel in order to achieve as favorable as possible a stabilizer ratio. In this case, it is furthermore possible to create, for example, a semicircular free space for a wheel drive shaft.